The Gist of Montessori: Very young children have dignity and capability beyond contemporary adult expectation; cultivating focus is the key to education.
Part of my How Homeschool? Series
Montessori presents the idea that your very young child is a very capable human being but that the world hasn’t been constructed to empower him - but when you construct your world for him, magic happens. I’ve previously written about both why you might pursue Montessori and why you might not. To briefly recap before getting into how other approaches would comment:
Maria Montessori believed “The role of education is to interest the child profoundly in an external activity to which he will give all his potential.” She spent countless hours observing children to develop a range of such activities.
Most other approaches ignore the time before age 6 or mention offhandedly that you should read to your child; Montessori has ideas for what your child should be giving their attention to from birth.
Figure 1. All those other pedagogies lazily begin years later. Don’t fall behind!
The classic Montessori line is that a child wants you to help him do it himself. You want to step in as little as possible and as much as necessary. Generally, learning should be child-led within a carefully adult-prepared environment.
Maria believed that there was a mind-body connection and that very young children learned better when experiencing concepts through their five senses - so she gave them tactile experiences that are fascinating and helpful in understanding the real world.
The Montessori method has a very deep learning curve for adults and its materials are expensive. It was created for mixed-age classrooms of 35 kids, not for homeschool.
Some genuine Montessori ideas are very different from current standard practice (like the idea that your baby should sleep on a floor bed, not in a crib).
Montessori is most popular before age 6, can be but is not often extended through elementary school, and is not very well developed past that. But because the Montessori brand is so popular for the very young, many, including vendors, claim the label without actually following the ideas.
A typical day for a Montessori 5 year old would involve getting up, perhaps helping fix breakfast, then spending two or more uninterrupted hours concentrating on an activity among a large number of options that a parent has diligently prepared. In the afternoon, the child would split her time between exploring nature and following a parent around, helping with household chores.
The goal of Montessori might be described as a self-directed, self-controlled, self-helpful (and generally helpful) child capable of intense focus.
I did not originally discuss some early childhood alternatives to Montessori.
Reggio Emilia has significant similarities with Montessori but is much less structured, centering around children’s free open-ended play. Montessori adults are facilitators, Reggio Emilia adults are collaborators. Ultimately, Reggio Emilia is somewhere between Montessori and unschooling.
Waldorf has a very strange origin story (Wikipedia describes the creator as the founder of “an esoteric spiritual movement based on the notion that an objectively comprehensible spiritual realm exists and can be observed by humans”) but mostly seems to translate into kids spending more time in nature and focusing on artistic expression, and by extension, creative thinking.
All three approaches have institutional preschools, but I get the impression that Montessori has much much more significant homeschooling market share.
Figure 2. The fictional vibe of Montessori, a self-directed hands-on pedagogy, is probably somewhere between Doc Brown and Tony Stark. Doc doesn’t just tell Marty McFly what to do, he helps him solve time conundrums himself and allows him to freely select objects from his workshop to experiment with and learn by doing. Iron Man’s research is clearly driven by his interests, including cooperative learning with fellow Avengers and eventually his own mentorship of Spiderman.
So, how might other homeschooling approaches critique Montessori? (Note that this is imaginative speculation, not quotation, from each point of view)
Evidence-based traditional: The data on Montessori are limited; according to the parenting economist Emily Oster, “the kids who go to Montessori [preschool] test better later, but they are also advantaged in all kinds of other difficult-to-control-for ways.” She also points out that “When Montessori was first introduced, it was totally unique — completely different from what had been done before.” But now lots of parents do the kinds of things Montessori recommended before age 6 (like giving kids choice and teaching them math through manipulatives), even if they don’t follow her exact program (compounding the problem is that even “Montessori” parents aren’t necessarily pursuing exactly what she recommended.) The UVA child psychologist Angeline Lillard is more confident that the science vindicates the original method. It’s probably reasonable to say that Montessori is at least heading in the right direction before age 6 - but a true Traditional advocate may say her best stuff has already been integrated and her ideas that remain unconventional are not practiced for good reason. And there are some areas where studies point to the possibility Montessori may be wrong, e.g. it may overwhelm children with too many choices. Some precocious children under six can even start Traditional academics. Certainly the older children get, the less Montessori has been studied and Traditional advocates can be more confident in their regime, which involves tests, grades, and lots more reading. And some children (and parents) really need more structure than a daily ask of what a child wants to do among a large number of options. Skeptics can also reasonably question whether (and how hard) Montessori is willing to push against a child’s interest to teach something important.
Charlotte Mason: Children under 6 should be spending 6+ hours exploring outside every day, not inside playing artificial games. A gigantic feature of Montessori is physical interaction - but that comes at the enormous expense of reading, which should instead be the basis of a curriculum after age 6. Relatedly, Montessori overemphasizes focus instead of teaching children what they need to know intermittently for short periods appropriate to their age’s attention span. Montessori does have values but they’re off-kilter - children need to learn that doing what they should and not what they want is an ideal discipline. That being said, Montessori did admirably want to get a teacher out of the way of a child’s learning - she just had the wrong learning in mind and children may wind up In Search of Lost Time. Finally, Charlotte Mason was designed for the home, Montessori was designed for a classroom of 35 and the translation may suffer more than homeschoolers care to admit. Indeed, Charlotte Mason herself apparently thought that Montessori’s roots in teaching institutionalized children made it a poor method for broad application.
Figure 3. 1,000 Hours Outside alleges that the average American kid gets less than 10 minutes outside a day to free play but they’re still only shooting for less than 3 hours a day, which can be easily accommodated by a Montessori schedule. Mason says they’re all amateurs!
Unschoolers: Montessori claims to embrace freedom but in fact limits children to specific uses of specific materials that stunt imagination (why can’t kids make a fort out of the Pink Tower?) - and, as much as they resist admitting it, Montessori practitioners do in fact insist that children work through everything regardless of interest, which is what kills love of learning. Montessori is explicit about the fact that it requires work when children need to be able to play; it’s the difference between being an actor in a play and writing your own script. That adds up to Montessori being unnecessarily intense and limiting. Most of Montessori takes place in the equivalent of a classroom, but you can explore your child’s interests across the entire globe (or at least your entire city). Ultimately, Montessori gives children more autonomy than alternatives but not nearly enough.
Specialists: Focus is the appropriate aspiration but Montessori’s version is badly generic. The version of specialization based on interest may be similar to Montessori in its attempt to figure out what will retain a child’s focus - but Montessori’s materials are so abstract that it’s hard to figure out what specifically they’ll lead to. Very early on, before you’ve identified your child’s specialization, Montessori may be a fine program for general development. But if you’re assigning a specialization, you may be able to start very early (e.g. a child can start on the Suzuki method as early as age 3; you can be reading aloud about the subjects you’re keen on).
PhD Dad Art Robinson: More so than any other method, Montessori admirably attempts to organize its materials and curriculum such that a child can figure it out himself and correct his own errors. Getting kids to do chores and the multi-hour focus it builds toward are also great features. But Montessori takes a gigantic, excessive amount of work for adults to learn what specific materials to get, to accurately set them up at the right age, and to initially (perhaps repeatedly) demonstrate how they work (it’s like Ikea furniture without a good instruction book - you know it’s possible and it’s supposed to look good at the end, but how exactly do you get there?). Elementary school children are ready to master abstract math and too much sensorial experience may wind up being a crutch that holds them back from higher math. Otherwise, kids should be reading. And Montessori is so sensitive to children’s feelings (e.g. asking a nonverbal baby permission to pick him up) that it may undermine parents’ authority and over-coddle children who are capable of much more.
PhD Dad Bryan Caplan: The biggest factor forming a child’s life is his genetics and Montessori involves a ton of work that could very well be marginal. So it’s certainly not necessary for parents to go out of their way to make Montessori happen versus something much easier for them. Appreciate the libertarian ethos of Montessori and its respect for children’s autonomy and dignity but, taken too far in age, this could not sufficiently prepare someone for college. And plenty of children may be ready for a much more book-heavy experience.
Mentors: The ideal Montessori homeschool involves adults intensely working in advance to set up activities that are briefly introduced and then allow children to entirely focus on them for multiple hours - but this misses the vital opportunity for children to spend time in the presence of adults, especially adults doing things other than chores. There may not be much mentoring that can be done for the very young, but you can arrange the right milieu, including ensuring that your children are present for frequent dinners with notable guests. You should be aspiring not to leave your kid alone for hours but to have them be sufficiently well-behaved to take with you to a serious meeting. Competent, thoughtful adults need to be in children’s foregrounds, not backgrounds, providing the wisdom of their experience that can’t be captured in structured materials. In this, Reggio Emilia is probably a better inspiration for the very young.
Classical starts at age 6 and pursuing Montessori beforehand can give children the wrong idea of what education is, in which they get to choose everyday what to do. Children don’t naturally know what is great, they need proper adult guidance! Montessori also has a different developmental theory of children than the Trivium - elementary age children should be memorizing facts, not working with their hands; high schoolers should be debating, not running a farm. If Montessori is a hands-on workshop, Classical education is like a time-traveling seminar. Montessori’s approach to history is oddly prehistoric, focused more on undocumented events like the creation of the earth and the alphabet, leaving children without a clear understanding of the importance of civilization and how it came to be. Montessori talks a big game about how capable children are but does not entrust them to pursue the kind of academics that they’ll need for future success.
Figure 4. Montessori counters: Why memorize the boring, historical kings of England when you can spend time with the awesome, prehistoric king of the dinosaurs?
Pragmatists: Montessori delightfully encourages children in “Practical Life” and gets them started very early on helping around the house (though that does require more work from adults). Montessori’s vision of a farm/hotel high school is actually better than most of the alternatives, though it made more practical sense in the early twentieth century than now. But, outside of that, getting a series of expensive toys where a child learns to put different shaped balls into different shaped holes is highly questionable. Why do you need sandpaper and cotton to teach rough and soft when you have dad’s stubble and mom’s cheek?
Pioneers: The physicality of Montessori is especially attractive for boys. Montessori also is helpfully sensitive to using natural materials; a significant problem for modern boys is their exposure to feminizing endocrine disruptors found in, for example, plastic. Some activities (e.g. flower arranging) are bound to be less interesting to boys than others. Montessori underappreciates competition, placing a high value on peace that is unlikely to inspire much boyish fidelity. One also needs to make sure that beyond the curriculum, you curate male role models.
Bible first: Maria Montessori said she was a Christian and her respect for the dignity of children is notable but it is not exactly Biblical and the curriculum is secular. Montessori focuses on the physical but Christianity is a faith derived from text that demands to be read. Because Montessori is such a deep curriculum, parents need to be on guard that they do not spend all of their allotted time and attention on its intricacies and miss raising Christian children. Elements of Montessori can be integrated into a Bible first approach but they are inherently secondary and must be individually judged.
Unit studies: Montessori children work with specific materials to follow a prescribed sequence designed to develop particular skills - but this misses out on the opportunity to explore topics in a holistic, cross-disciplinary manner. Montessori promotes the idea of five-senses-experiences but its materials tend to be abstract; unit studies allows for full immersion (that can easily take place outside the classroom) and encourages broader connections for a more comprehensive understanding. Montessori also sets everything up for the student, while unit studies can invite the student to participate in the preparation. Analogously, Montessori students swim laps in predetermined swimming pool lanes; unit studies looks at the ocean of knowledge from a submarine, sailboat, helicopter, satelite, beach, painting, and more. But ultimately, some version of unit studies may very well be the continuation that Montessori needed into later years.
Cyberschoolers: Montessori was an exceptional first principles thinker for the early 20th century; the question is whether all of her conclusions are still the best for today. In particular, is there really no use for a computer in a modern child’s optimal education? If Maria Montessori had a 3-D printer, what else could she have come up with? Overall, Montessori is still too wed to a past without the epoch-shattering nature of the internet.
Have I missed an important critique of Montessori? Let me know.
My own takeaway: there’s nothing more thoughtful for kids under 6 than Montessori. Our children are currently well-under 6 and we default to the Montessori method and choose our deviations. We have observed our oldest boy, tried to identify his interests, and consulted a menu of Montessori suggestions, including involving him in our day to day chores. So far we’ve been amazed by how helpful our oldest can be, way beyond what our expectation was before having children or discovering Montessori. Our most substantial deviation is that we prioritize reading over activities, but we really appreciate how much the Montessori suggestions occupy his whole attention (at least until he thoroughly figures them out). At the moment, we plan to continue our current approach for the foreseeable future but re-evaluate regularly - and if you find yourself attracted to another approach that does not start until later, Montessori is an option for you in the younger years.
Further reading might include:
Montessori: the Science Behind the Genius by Angeline Stoll Lillard
Dr. Lillard earned her doctorate at Stanford and runs the Early Developmental Lab at the University of Virginia. This book is a great and serious look at the social science behind Montessori but you could not create your own curriculum out of it.
Montessori from the Start by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen
Yes, the Lillards are all part of the same family. No, my interest in Montessori is not just because Paula’s maiden name is Polk and she might have some distant relationship to America’s greatest president. This is a good, inspirational book about how to set up your home from birth for your child. But note it ends at age 3!
Montessori Baby, Montessori Toddler by Simone Davies; Montessori Home by Ashley Yeh
Helpful because they lay out in sequence what you should be doing for the early years. In the same vein, even if you acquire knock-offs, checking out the recommended ages on officially certified Montessori materials can be a good guide. Montessori Toddler has an especially good opening about what to expect from a toddler (i.e. age 1-3) including “Toddlers are not giving us a hard time. They are having a hard time.”
Figure 5. ChatGPT’s impression of the “most stereotypical student of Montessori education.”